Uk v Australian degree....easier to achieve ?

[janlo]

I studied for my degree and a post grad diploma in the UK and am currently studying for my Masters in Australia. I have also spent the last 3 years working for Australian Universities. I would say that the main difference between UK and Australian courses is the flexibility Australian students enjoy. I am not sure if things have changed in British Uni's as it is a good few years since I studied there but when I studied in the UK the study patterns were inflexible and the academic year started in September and finished in June. Whereas in Australia there are at least two starting points in each year and students have the option to study anything from full time to one topic a semester which makes it easier to fit in with work.

 

The culture in the UK seems to be study hard for as short a time as possible and pay the debt off when you start work whereas the Australian culture seems to be to fit study around work and finish with as little debt as possible but take a longer time. The UK system has end of year and end of degree exams, (or did when I was a student there) whereas Australian uni's seem to go for continuous assessment and if there are exams they are at the end of a topic rather than the course. My Aussie colleagues find it hard to believe that I sat 13 x 3 hour exams and produced a dissertation at the end of my degree.

 

As Quoll mentioned Aussie degrees are ordinary degrees not honours degrees and as such there is intrinsically more work in the honours degree. However if you are living in Australia you only need an honours degree if you intend to continue in higher education. Employers are happy with an ordinary degree. I don't know how an Aussie degree translates in the UK - perhaps there are people on the forum who have experience. As a Brit moving into the Australian system my qualifications were marked differently and that caused problems. For example a mark of 80% is a first class degree grade in the UK and at the very top end of the marks given whereas 80% is a grade frequently given in Australia and equates to a Higher Distinction. There are computer programs used by the Uni's to try and get over these inconsistencies in marking. Having said all that I think the actual difficulty of the work should be of a similar standing between the two countries as the Times Uni rankings indicate.

 

 

looking at the Newcastle Uni info....degrees with honours are available here. Were you talking about a specific state?

[starlight7]

Also I think the unis differ a lot. Some of them have much more rigorous courses than others. Same as in the UK I imagine. There is well known hierachy.

[Guest littlesarah]

My wife is a Podiatrist and studied in the UK. Without the Honours part of the degree she would not be able to practice as a Podiatrist in the UK, she would have just left uni with a standard degree. So I suppose it's something to think about if the studies were done here in Australia, but with a view to moving back the UK in the future....

 

HCPC recognises Australian Podiatry degrees as equivalent to the UK one. The only additional requirement would be to complete the UK LA certificate (which would be easy enough for an Australian grad as we cover the same material but it doesn't get them a separate qualification). This I know for sure. My understanding is that most AHP degrees obtained in Australia are accepted in the UK (physio certainly is).

[Guest littlesarah]

Also I think the unis differ a lot. Some of them have much more rigorous courses than others. Same as in the UK I imagine. There is well known hierachy.

 

Depends what you're studying. Courses that have external accreditation are equivalent across institutions, in terms of material studies. There may be variation in terms of how it's delivered, but what suits one student isn't right for others.

[Phoenix16]

I'm doing a degree here in Oz as a mature student! One of my fellow students started the same degree in UK and did 1.5 years before emigrating, the time it would take to convert meant it was easier simply to start the degree again, I commented to her she must be finding it easy having already done it and her reply was No Way, the course here is very different and actually much harder (we're doing nursing).

 

My 7 year old is in year 2, she has Maths, writing and reading homework EVERY night, the reading usually consists of a whole book of several chapters, approx 60 pages (at the moment it's generally Ella and Olivia or Geronimo Stilton type books), she should read the whole book but if it's particularly long she can do it over 2 nights and she will generally have a lexile test on one of her reading books each week (she loves lexile texts!) and in addition, the teacher allocates work on the Mathlectics website to do at home and weekends. She came home with 8 reading books and a pile of spelling and writing worksheets to do over the school holidays too, so I'm not really convinced about the UK is better than OZ schooling argument! I can tell ya, I'm over homework ha ha!!

[MARYROSE02]

Could anyone throw any light on the education system in Australia ? If the schools are not at the same standard as many have said and I'm inclined to agree, then do they kind of fast track them at the end.....say in year 12 ? because a degree is a degree so is it only the very brightest that get the results good enough for uni ? Bit confused as heaps go to uni from public schools, it must be easier as they don't seem to work as hard for it ! My son is in year 11, just about to start year 12 and then hopes to go to uni he is far less stressed than all his peers back home that have just done GCSEs. They must really stick it to them in that final year !

 

If this was even remotely true, then it would mean that Australian graduates, in whichever discipline or profession - the law, medicine, dentistry, nursing, engineering. IT, business, defence, and of course teaching, would all be sub-standard, at least compared to the UK, and given the flow in both directions, then it is patently untrue. For example, members of the Australian defence forces, on secondment to their British counterparts, would be shown to be incompetent. It would be the same with Aussie doctors, dentists, nurses, teachers, working in the UK. Just think of the potential scandals and lawsuits resulting from inferior Australian professionals 'let loose' on unsuspecting Pommies.

 

And what about all the British professionals working in Australia? Are they 'showing up' their Aussie counterparts with their superior training? Or perhaps, it goes the other way, with only inferior Pommie professionals coming to Australia. I'm thinking here, for example of Pommie academics teaching at Aussie universities. My recent philosophy course at Macquarie university had a Pommie professor giving the lectures. I'm worried now about the standard of his teaching, if Australian educations standards are inferior to Pommie ones. And what about my BA from UNSW? I thought studying for that was one of the hardest things I've done in my life, but being educated in England, I should have 'sailed' through the course.

 

Who are the 'many who have said that schools are not at the same standard' anyway? Are there some studies and reports that back up these opinions? I'd certainly like to see them, before I study any more units with the Open University Australia, otherwise I am wasting the next six years of my life studying for a sub-standard qualification.

[PaulRaynor]

After getting my Graduate Diploma and then Post Graduate Diploma in the UK many years ago I thought I might consider doing an MA in Applied Theatre Studies at the University of New England in Armidale, NSW. I just made a tentative enquiry in the first instance and they wrote back informing me that I had been accepted on to the course, congratulations!

 

So now as its all distance learning I have accepted a job back in London that will help me complete my research for it. I have never experienced the delights of Armidale or the campus (although I'm told its delightful in Spring) and don't suppose I ever will ! Funny old world.

[mungbean]

Aus Honours degrees are 4 yrs whereas UK ones are 3 yrs.

 

In Scotland they're usually 4. Rest of the UK they're usually 3.

 

In the UK most people study for an honours degree, and receive non-honours if they achieve a 3rd class ("ordinary degree").

 

In Aus an honours and non-honours degree are specified as being different quals at separate levels in the Australian Qualifications Framework.

 

 

The biggest differences in quality would be down to the institution where you study, rather than whether it's here or there.

[dmjg]

My Aussie Chemistry degree and Diploma of Education were both assessed by a company called UKNARIC,

 

They were assessed to be equivalent to a British degree (without honours) and a PGCE with no extra work needed by me.

 

I went straight into a teaching job

[Bound4Tassie]

My Aussie Chemistry degree and Diploma of Education were both assessed by a company called UKNARIC,

 

They were assessed to be equivalent to a British degree (without honours) and a PGCE with no extra work needed by me.

 

I went straight into a teaching job

 

Out of interest were you considered an " unqualified" teacher when you came here? My husband was ( has a BEd) but had to produce a portfolio of evidence during that year in order to gain his uk " qualified" status and thus get on the proper pay scale.

[wolvesaussie]

I would say depends on the uni, I went to uni in Australia... one unit I got 49%, result, fail... had to redo the entire modual again.. The Uk uni I worked at, pass mark was 40%, if someone got 39% they would be given an opportunity to either resit an exam or in some cases resubmit an assignment to make up the extra marks.

[dmjg]

Out of interest were you considered an " unqualified" teacher when you came here? My husband was ( has a BEd) but had to produce a portfolio of evidence during that year in order to gain his uk " qualified" status and thus get on the proper pay scale.

 

Yes.

 

But.

 

The job i had gotten had been signed and sorted. They knew it was my first teaching job. The pay had also been agreed.

 

I was then called into the heads office and explained that i was classified as an unqualified teacher until i passed the standards. He went on to say that i had to be paid as an unqualified teacher (less), but they would be adding on a bonus that would bring me back into line with the step on the scale that had been agreed on.

 

I then had to go to all the new teacher meetings. They would give an intro then break off into their groups; PGCE to the left, GTP to the right, and, you.......... :laugh:

 

I had a person come in to pre assess me to see where i had to improve to be awarded QTS. They only flagged up a lack of British law understanding where it related to teaching (unsurprisingly).

 

I gathered my evidence over about three months and was assessed by some paid in gentleman.

 

He observed a top set year 8 followed by a bottom set year 11. The year 8s were perfect, the expt and class went off without a hitch. The year 11s were doing covalent bonding revision. One stood up and said, 'im going to be a brickie with me dad, what the fcuk do i need to learn this $hit for?' I couldnt really help but agree with him, but gave some sort of answer.

 

The assessor then went into the heads office with me, picked up the national curriculum handbook off his library shelf (blew off the dust), opened to page 1 and asked me what the two aims of the whole national curriculum were!!!

 

He asked to see a few pieces of evidence relating to the standards. I pushed across three lever arch files, but he said 'Its your evidence, you find it!'

 

That took twenty seconds, then he spent the next hour explaining how teaching had changed over his career and asking how it was in Aus........

 

Passed, no probs.